2016 Prius Company Car Tax Perhaps Not As Good As I Thought

[StuartAdair]

Hello all,
I'm a company car driver considering the 2016 Prius, however if what I've read is correct Toyota have missed a trick with the specification that will drive company car users away, and its all about Sat Nav.

According to what I've read all versions up the the Business Edition have a CO of 70g which puts them in the 9% company car tax bracket with a 40% BIK of £72 per month.
For Sat Nav you have to upgrade to the Business Edition Plus which has a higher CO of 76g, is in the 13% bracket with a BIK of £112 per month. This is due to the 17in wheels.

So, if I want a Prius with Sat Nav (Essential for my job) I need to be prepared to pay an extra £40 per month in tax and that's too much, and I hate having to stick an external sat nav on the windscreen. It also puts the Prius in a different league when I'm considering choices. For example for £123 per month BIK I can get a Mondeo Hybrid which is far larger and more refined than the Prius.

It would be infuriating if Toyota have really got this wrong for company car drivers in the UK because I really like the idea of trying the Prius when I order later this year, but I'm not prepared to pay an additional £40 per month in tax for something I need.

Of course, there's always the chance I've got it all wrong...And the Business Edition does have Sat Nav as standard ??

[FROSTYBALLS]

Hello Stuart - welcome to Toyota Owners Club.

As we're an independent site, have no association with Toyota, don't know for certain whether or not Toyota reads the various forums on this site, and, if they do, they won't respond to any query on this forum, you really need to raise this with Toyota GB.

You can do this either by raising a query using Toyota GB's contact page - https://www.toyota.co.uk/caring-for-your-toyota/owners/owners.json#/iframe/http%3A%2F%2Fforms.toyota.co.uk%2Fcontact-us

or by raising a question in the appropriate section on Toyota GB's UK blog - http://blog.toyota.co.uk/

[alan333]

Could you add sat nav as an optional extra on the business edition?

[StuartAdair]

Not too sure Alan as the Toyota website configuration website isnt up and running yet. However, the way the scheme runs is that I have to pay up front for any add-ons which adds another barrier.

[Heidfirst]

As you say the brochure on Toyota.co.uk is still for the current rather than new Prius so can't really say.

As has been mentioned (& I saw your objection) though you could have the car delivered & then dealer fit the satnav after (I presume that it will just plug into the back of the head unit as on other Toyotas). In fact that is exactly what is being predicted will happen when the new road tax rules kick in in 2017 where cars listed over £40,000 will pay an extra £310 per year for the first 5 years - de-specced cars that just creep in under £40,000 list which people then spec. up after delivery. It's also been suggested the same will happen with "posh light commercials" (Hiluxes & the like) if as is suspected the government change the tax rules for those.

Tbh Garmin/TomTom is going to give you a much better, more up to date satnav both in terms of hardware & mapping albeit not as convenient (yes, read that objection too :P ).

I suspect that the real world figures of the Mondeo Hybrid aren't going to come close to the new generation Prius - but do you really care as presumably the company pays the fuel bill? Autoexpress only managed 43mpg & weren't exactly enthusiastic about the car in general. It's also only available as a saloon if that may be an issue.

[StuartAdair]

Hi

You raise a good point about the Mondeo, its far from perfect. When I list what's important to me as a company car driver...(Comfort, Cost, Cruise-control, Sat-nav, Storage space) the Mondeo ticks all the boxes apart from storage space, and the Prius in Business Edition format everything apart from Sat-Nav, but in higher specs the Prius loses out on cost due to higher BIK which is near the top of my list and would be a deal-breaker.

Given that a company car is just a tool for work I wouldn't spent an additional penny of my money on it so retro-fitting sat nav isn't viable.

You also make a good point about the Mondeo MPG, but you're only taking into account one of the three financial factors to consider. One is BIK, the other is real-world MPG and the third is the amount of money the company pays you for the business mileage you travel which is based upon Inland Revenue advisory rates. The days of fuel-cards are long gone and these days most company car drivers pay for their business miles and claim the money back. Having said all that, the Prius is around the same cost are the Mondeo so the BIK would be comparable. Real world MPG would be slightly, but only just slightly less than the Prius and with a 1.8Ltr petrol engine the refund rate would be the same at 13p per mile. The Mondeo gives me more space than the Prius and Sat-Nav as standard too!!!! AAGGHH!!! Going for a lie down as its all too confusing ;-)

[Heidfirst]

Everybody has a different set of priorities in a car according to what they use it for whether private or for business & hence are going to make different choices.

E.g. someone who has a company car but uses it only for short trips around town is likely to make a different choice than someone who is doing 50,000 miles per year driving up & down the major road network. Similarly, if all you have to carry is a briefcase then you may well make a different choice from someone that has to carry lots of samples, large & long items etc. For many a hatch would always trump a saloon in terms of practicality.

There are different ways of running company cars (including of course not actually running company cars but giving an equivalent allowance). Every company & individual has to work out what is best for them. You know your company scheme - we don't.

Autoexpress got ~43mpg on their test of the Mondeo Hybrid, most people seem to get 50+ out of a Prius (HonestJohn's RealMPG says 57 & the new Mk4 is supposedly up to 18% more efficient) but admittedly it's going to vary according to where, when & how you drive. However, if you do a lot of driving where the Prius is least efficient (fast motorway) then a diesel is going to beat both the Ford & the Prius (but there is a tax surcharge on a diesel).

At the end of the day it is your needs, wants & finances so only you can decide what is best for you.

btw do we have official CO2 figures for Prius Mk4 yet other than "from 70g/km"?

[StuartAdair]

Hi. All good points well made. The Prius CO figures are listed on the Parkers Website. http://www.parkers.co.uk/company-cars/tax-calculator/

Active and Business Edition are 70 g/km putting them in the 9% BIK bracket. The Business Edition Plus and Excel are a 76 g/km die to the 17in wheels which puts them in the 13% bracket this year, and over the next 2 years that % rises steeply hence the reason its important to get this right. The impact can be hundreds of £ in extra tax a year.

[FROSTYBALLS]

The figures on Parkers are for the current Prius not for the next generation that comes to the UK in March.

[Heidfirst]

On 15/01/2016 at 2:44 PM, StuartAdair said:

Hello all,
I'm a company car driver considering the 2016 Prius, however if what I've read is correct Toyota have missed a trick with the specification that will drive company car users away, and its all about Sat Nav.

According to what I've read all versions up the the Business Edition have a CO of 70g which puts them in the 9% company car tax bracket with a 40% BIK of £72 per month.
For Sat Nav you have to upgrade to the Business Edition Plus which has a higher CO of 76g, is in the 13% bracket with a BIK of £112 per month. This is due to the 17in wheels.

So, if I want a Prius with Sat Nav (Essential for my job) I need to be prepared to pay an extra £40 per month in tax and that's too much, and I hate having to stick an external sat nav on the windscreen. It also puts the Prius in a different league when I'm considering choices. For example for £123 per month BIK I can get a Mondeo Hybrid which is far larger and more refined than the Prius.

It would be infuriating if Toyota have really got this wrong for company car drivers in the UK because I really like the idea of trying the Prius when I order later this year, but I'm not prepared to pay an additional £40 per month in tax for something I need.

Of course, there's always the chance I've got it all wrong...And the Business Edition does have Sat Nav as standard ??

Hi Stuart, according to HonestJohn's new review of the Gen IV you can specify 15" wheels on higher trims & get cash back for it!

" On 15” wheels the new Prius gets down to 70g/m CO2, making it London Congestion Charge exempt and even if you opt for a higher grade trim that normally comes on 17” wheels you can opt for the 15s and earn a £400 rebate on the price, which is what they call a bit of a no brainer. " 

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/road-tests/toyota/toyota-prius-2016-road-test/

[PeteB]

That's right according to the "build your Prius" option that's now on the web site.  Also, it seems you can have SatNav as an option on the Business Edition.

[StuartAdair]

Thanks for the reply, but things might not be so bad after all. I've noticed that on the Parkers company car listings there is a unique model specified called the Excel [15in Alloy] which has a P11D value of £26,995, Co 70 g/km and BIK tax rate of 9% so I can go for the top of the range model and still have cheap tax.

Oh, I should also share with you that someone at work left and I've taken over their Prius for a couple of months until I order mine. Its a struggle as its only the T3 so no cruise control etc to make my life easier but I'm a convert now.

[PeteB]

Yes, that's the one that interests me, with 15" wheels and optional spare wheel (although I'm retired now so tax aspect not an issue). - I'm about to put a spec up on the alternative to Prius thread.

My current T3 has Cruise Control, and so does yours.  They just leave the switch off.  My dealer charged just £135 to get it working 3½ years ago.

They've had plenty of practice!  They've done it on a Gen 2 T3 and 2 Gen 1 Prius for me as well.